Audra in the hospital and remodel update

Hi all,
Our new Granddaughter Audra was rushed to the hospital today. She has caught Shane & Kaylin's colds and was not eating well and started turning blue.  Sarah called her doctor and they told her to get her to Children's Hospital in Milwaukee.  Matt , Kaylin & Shane were down in IL for Asher's 4th birthday party and Sarah stayed home with Audra for 2 reasons...one, because she's so tiny yet (2 weeks old) and 2nd, she was sick and not eating well.  Sarah got to Children's Hospital and they immediately started checking Audra out which included a spinal tap.  They found out that she has pneumonia of the upper lungs and will be in the hospital until she's well.  Audra has been put on oxygen and a IV drip with antibiotics. While all this was going on, Matt & kids were on their way back home.  Matt dropped Kaylin & Shane off at his parents house and continued to the hospital.  Matt & Sarah will be staying overnight in the hospital with her.  We are thinking about you Audra.  Get well soon...Love you !!!!

Remodel Update:
We are almost finished with our remodeling project.  The bathroom vanity, sink & toilet have been installed and the water has been hooked up.  The walls have been painted also. Still waiting for the electrician to hang the lights.  Other than that and framing the window it will be done. 

These pictures were taken before we cleaned up the dust...sorry !

The family room is almost finished too.  Louie has been working the last 2 days on the fireplace putting the stone on it.  It looks great so far.  What an artist !!! 

Monday he should be done with it and then they can finish with the trim around the windows & fireplace.  Genesse fireplace needs to come back then and finish installing the logs and burners. Then the electrician needs to connect the accent lights above the fireplace, and by the bottom of the stairs.  He also needs to install the additional fuse box in the basement.  Lastly, he needs to put switch covers on the electrical boxes and then he will be done here.  We have ordered the carpet and that should be here in about 2 to 3 weeks (hopefully sooner!) and then we will be done.  I can't wait...there has been so much dust in this house for the last month it's hard to keep up with.  It's in and on everything ! We are going to have a major spring cleaning to do once we are done. The furnace filter light has gone on already (should not have gone on until about June or July), so I have to go pick up a new one on Monday.
So that's all for now, we have a sad day ahead of us tomorrow.  It will be my cousin Randy Wulf's funeral.  He passed away on Monday night from a brain hemorrhage he suffered on Sunday morning.  He was only 55 years old and he will be dearly missed.  He was one of my favorite cousins.  Rest in Peace Randy..we love you and will miss you.

Have a good week.

Surprise ! We have a new Grand Daughter and her name is Audra Claire

Hi all,
Thursday I awoke to my cell phone ringing at 3:30 AM.  Now normally when you get a call that early in the morning, the call is not good news.  I answered it and it was Sarah.  She asked me to come over to their house because she thought her water had broken and was not sure when they would have to go to the hospital.  She had a call into her doctor to find out what to do.  I was in the car at 4 AM. I had to make a call to my boss to ask for a vacation day and also a call to my co-worker Julie to ask her to make copies of the staff meeting report that was scheduled for Thursday AM.  I got to Sarah & Matt's house and she definatly was having labor pains. They were coming 3 to 7 min. apart.  The nurse called her back and got more information from her and then told Sarah she would check with the doctor and get back to her.  The nurse called back and gave Sarah & Matt the "get to the hospital" ok. So they left and I sat down with my coffee and waited for Kaylin & Shane to wake up.  Finally around 6:30 I heard...Shane calling "momeee, daddeeee, momeee, daddeeee, then I heard Kaylin yelling...Shane...stop talking, I'm still tired".  So I thought I would go up there before things got out of hand..ha,ha..  When I walked into the bedroom they sat up and couldn't figure out why Grandma was there.   I told them that I'm here because Mommy & Daddy went to the hospital so Mommy can have the baby.   They were kinda ok with that explaination, but I could tell they were unsure as to what was all going on.  We came down stairs and cuddled on the couch for a little while before Kaylin decided that she was hungry for a bagel.  I had asked them earlier if they were hungry or thirsty, and they both said no, so I let it go at that.  Shane said he wanted a bagel too, so I got up and made some bagels, one with just butter (Shane) and with orders to "do not cut it !!!!"..ha,ha.   Kaylin wanted peanut butter on hers.  After that I got them dressed and then played with cars & trucks on Shanes car ramp toy.  I texted Sean to let him know that Sarah was in labor and he immediatly responded AHHHHHHH! LOL.  Matt called around 9:30 and said that things were progressing nicely, but no baby yet.  He talked to Shane & Kaylin too just to let them know whats going on with Mommy.  Finally around 12:15, Matt called and said "Congratulations Grandma, You have a new Grand Daughter!! I was so happy!!!!!  I texted Sean and John with the details and I then told Kaylin & Shane that they had a new baby sister and they were very happy.  They wanted to go see her right now...So I got them ready and the proceeded to go to the hospital.  Unfortunatly, I missed the turn for the hospital and had to turn around, but that took up only about 10 min.  We got to the Women's Center at Community Memorial Hospital in Menomonee Falls and parked the van.  I had a problem getting Shanes car seat unlocked ( I always have a problem),but finally I got it undone.  We walked through the moving doors.  Kaylin says "I know how to go through these doors"  and she did...  We found the elevators and as we are going up, the kids are stripping off their hats, gloves & coats.  It wouldn't have been a problem, but I had Matt's computer bag, my purse, a second set of clothes for Shane (in case he had an "accident").  So when I got off the elevator I was trying to not drop anything.  The nurses at the nurses station looked at me and said "don't worry, we 'll know where it belongs if you drop anything".  We got to the room and Matt met us at the door.  Shane went running into it and when he saw Sarah in the hospital bed he put the breaks on and his eyes got real big.  I think he was shocked to see Mommy in the bed with a IV in her arm.  He wasn't too sure yet about all this.  Kaylin seemed OK, but was kinda quiet too.  Once they saw little Audra, they were all smiles and both wanted to hold her.  They climbed up on the bed and sat down next to Sarah and held Audra. 

I have to tell you to hold a little baby in your arms again is the greatest thing in the world!!  She is so pretty. Both of the kids had colds, so the nurse said that they really shouldn't stay very long.  So in about and hour, Matt and the kids went home while I stayed a little longer with Sarah & Audra.  I then left around 3:30PM and went back to their house so Matt could come back to the hospital.  I had to go back to my house to let Bailey out & to do some grocery shopping as the kids were coming over on Friday night for a sleepover.  So Matt's Mom & Dad came over to Matt & Sarah's house at around 5:30 to watch the kids until Matt got home.
Friday:
I got up my usual time 5AM to get ready to come over to Matt & Sarah's.  John went out to start his truck to leave for work and the truck would not start.  He came in and started looking up on the internet what the code meant that was showing on the dashboard.  He thought is was for the seal on the gas cap.  So he went out side and tried re-tightening that, but it didn't clear the code.  By this time, he got the truck started but was afraid to turn it off.  It was around 7:30 by this time and the card dealer service dept didn't open until 8AM.  So I followed him to Schlossman's Dodge on Capital Dr. to drop the truckoff so they could fix it.  John then dropped me off at Matt & Sarahs and proceeded to work.  On Friday, Kaylin goes to school, so Matt took her there in the morning and I was to pick her up at noon.  I ended up using their van (it has both of their cars seats in it) to pick her up.  I found her school real easy, just off Main St. in Menomonee Falls, and Shane & I went in to get her.  She was in another room finishing up her music class so we had to wait a little bit.  She finally came out and we went in the room to get her.  Because Valentine's Day was on Monday, the kids had earlier in the week brought Valentine's with little candies attached to each one of the V-cards.  So when we left her room, her teacher gave Kaylin a decorated Valentine's bag.  Kaylin held that bag all the way home and was saying "I wonder what's all in this bag?"...We got home and the first thing she did was to open up this bag, and WOW...all of those Valentine's (with candy & pencils) fell out.  Well....both kids wanted to eat the candy.  I told them that if they eat their lunch, then they could have 1 piece.  I made some macaroni & cheese and that took a little time.  Those poor kids had looked through all of these treats and had the one they wanted sitting right by their place at the table.  Finally I got their lunch ready and they ate real fast.  They both picked out suckers and they savored them...ha, ha.  Kaylin had a dance class at 3:45 so we packed up and met Matt at her class.  How cute!  Picture this...about eight little girls all dressed the same way in pink leotards and tights, with their little slippers on and their hair up on top of their heads, doing their ballet positions and then practicing their recital dance.  It was the cutest thing!!!  Shane had fallen asleep on the way to her dance class, so when we got there Matt took him out of his car seat and Shane slept all the way through Kaylin's class. We then left to go back to their house to meet John to leave our car there overnight and Matt went back up to the hospital.  He was going to sleep overnight there.  I got to their house and John came shortly after.  We all drove to the car dealer to pick up the truck and then proceeded to go to our house.  These poor kids were in their seats for about an hour and were getting pretty restless at this time.  I kept trying to sing songs and talking to them.  It worked for the most part.  We got home and had pizza for supper & ice cream for dessert.  With the downstairs room completely cleaned out, the kids could ride their bikes and bounce balls and just generally run around.  It got to be around 7:30 and we could see the kids were starting to wind down, so we got PJ's on, brushed teeth and then found the Disney channel that had a kids show on it.  I took them up to bed at 8:15 and we sang a few songs, read a few books and both kids promptly fell asleep.  As I had mentioned before, Kaylin & Shane have colds, but Kaylin has a nasty cough, so cough medicine has to be taken.  I ran out of it Friday night so I have to go get some Sat morning.
Saturday:
The kids were up at 6:30 bright eyed and bushy tailed...Except for some coughing through the night, they slept well.  We were to have a new refrigerator delivered in the morning, so I had to clean out our old one. John made the pancakes so I could do that.  Before that I had to run to Walgreens to pick up some more cough medicine and while there I saw the cutest little slippers for the kids.  They were fashioned after the Zhu Zhu pet theme, so I got pink ones for Kaylin and red and tan ones for Shane.  They are the kind that go one either foot, so no figuring out which foot they are to go on. The kids made some pictures with crayons and stickers for Audra to look at.  Shane even made one for Bailey to hang on the fridge. The new fridge came around 9:30 so then I had to put everything back into it.  The kids said they wanted to have a PJ day, but we then asked them if they wanted to go see their Mommy, Daddy & Audra.  They changed their minds real quick on that idea.   We got them dressed and packed up and left the house around 10:30.  We had to stop at Halquist Stone before noon (they are only open till noon on Sat,) to look again at the stone we are getting for the fireplace.  Shane fell asleep on the way and when we got there Kaylin started yelling "SHANE WAKE UP !!!" over and over....Little Shane was not in the best of moods then and would not get out of the van for John.  Kaylin and John left to go into Halquist and I talked to Shane trying to get him to get out of the van.  I then bribed him with one of the packages of snacks I brought with us.  That did it and off to the store we went.  We left then to go to their house.  It was around 11:45 and the kids were getting hungry.  We stopped at McDonalds to pick up some Happy Meals and a couple of hambugers/fries for Sarah & Matt.  We got to their house and sat down for lunch.  What a difference it is to have Audra at home, she had a little sleeper on instead of just a diaper and blanket on at the hospital.  Such a little sweetheart!!!  She has lots of dark brown hair and she looks alot like Shane when he was born.    We stayed for a little while longer and then Bill, Loren & Little Reese came to visit too.  We left to go back home after awhile.  Boy this weekend sure went fast, dosen't seem like we had the kids here at all.  We will have to fix that soon...ha,ah.
The remodeling is going along fine.  The inspector came and inspected everything that has been done so far and was approved.  Now yesterday and today, the drywallers are here doing their thing.  The fireplace stone was ordered yesterday so that should be here soon.  We are looking at carpeting now and the color for paint on the walls.
That's it...
Everyone have a great week.

How About Those Packers !!!!

Hi All,
My title says it all....The Green Bay Packers are the World Champions!!! What a game.  Leave it to them to have us on the edge of our seats....But they pulled it off.   With that said and done, now we can still say THE BEARS STILL SUCK!!!!.  In my opinon, the Bears got to where they were just by luck not by talent...And the way their quarterback Cutler pouted and sat on the bench away from everyone with his so-called "injury".  The Packers came from behind with so many problems in the beginning and rallied at the end...I never felt so happy when the Packers beat the Bears in their own stadium!! I think that was the best way to show them up...
Anyway, now that I got that off my chest and all the Bear fans irate......LOL...
John and I went up north this past weekend (early Friday morning) to find that Dewey had plowed us out.  Thank goodness!! The snow is about a foot and 1/2 and it would have been a long day (for John) to snowblow all of that.  He just had to snowblow a trail for us to get to the cabin and then proceeded to snowblow the deck too.
Friday:
We left the house at 6 AM and arrived in Minocqua around 10AM.  Very uneventfull ride, no problems along the way.  It was nice to be able to look at things along the way rather than going up in the evening and just looking at darkness.  We unpacked the truck and John headed down to the lake to help set up the large tent.  After that was done he came back and we headed into town so John could get a haircut.  We then stopped at Wal-Mart to buy John some thermals to wear down on the ice.  After that it was around 3:30PM and had to kill some more time before ging out for a fish fry for supper.  We decided to stop at the American Fireplace store to look at the displays they had.   We left there and headed to Crickets Bar for their fish fry.  Never stopped there before and we've been told they have a very good fish fry.  We got there around 4:30 and they were just getting the fish fry ready.  We sat down and the waitress took our order.  She brought us potato slad, cole slaw, bread and baked beans.  In about 15 minutes we had our fish fry.  To LARGE pieces of beer battered fish with either french fries or a baked potato.  All this for $8.95.  It tasted so good!! I know where we are going to go now for fish fry's.  We could never find the right place in all the time we've been up here, but we know now....
We were so full after leaving, we just went home and relaxed. 
Saturday:
John had to be down at Dewey's at 6:30AM to help him with getting all the prizes down to the lake.  So he did that and then came back with the truck to then take off again on my ATV.  John's ATV needed a new battery and unfortunatly, when John ordered it on line, it didn't get to the house until Friday during the day.  So John used my ATV for ice fishing.  He got alot of comments about how nice it looked too.  Arctic Cat ATV's are not commonly bought in WI for some unknown reason.  Polaris and Hondas are the most common.  But John was getting alot of positive comments about my ATV.  John got some big wheels/tires for it, so that may have been the attraction.

After John went down to the lake, I left to go to town to get some popcorn seasoning from the Minocqua Popcorn Company store.  Kaylin says to us "I just can't eat it plain"....ha,ha...We just can't let our little girl eat her popcorn plain....ha,ha.....
So I picked up 2 seasoning jars...all different tasty seasonings....and got home around 11:30AM.  I then worked on some jewelry.  Sarah wanted me to make her a bracelet to wear when she nurses the baby (I won't go into detail about that, but you can let your imagination go wild)....ha,ha
I restrung a necklace that Sarah gave me that was Matt's moms.  I hope she like's it...
I had made chili in the crock pot so I didn't have to think about supper.  I stopped an bought a book before I came home so I then started to read.  Bailey, of course was taking her all day nap.  John got home around 4PM.  I asked him to take a few pictures at the fisheree, he got about 2 taken and then the camera stopped.  I think it ran out of battery.....Dewey took some pic's and he said he would forward the to us.  There were only 4 kids from the Big Brothers/Big Sisters, but they sure had fun fishing.  One of the guys took them around on his ATV for rides too and they really like that.  There were around 85 people that registered for the fisheree and there were lots of big fish caught and prizes given out..it seemed like everyone had a great time.
Sunday:
We got up and had our coffee and relaxed a few hours before we started to pack up.  Johnwanted to leave by 10AM.  I got everything packed and cleaned and was helping to load up the truck when Sarah called.  SHe asked us to stop by their house to visit and watch the Superbowl with them.  Sean was coming down too so we said we would come by.  We got there around 2:30PM.  Sarah had made some chili in her crock pot, there were chips and dip too. I brought some raw veggies and dip.  Sarah just started her 9th month and she looks so cute!!!  She told me she's ready to have this baby.  She can feel that the baby is putting on the weight now as it is getting harder to move around or sit in a comfortable position.  The baby had the hiccups when we were sitting watching the game.  How cute!! I can't wait to meet him or her !!!
We watched the game until half time and then we packed up and went home to watch the Packers become the World Champions!!
The remodeling update:
We have been told that the fireplace may be in this week and then would be installed by the end of the week.   I can't wait.  Then the inspector needs to come and look at things before the drywallers can come to complete their work.  The floor tile in the bathroom will be installed by the end of the week.  We were called by Home Depot Sunday night to tell us that the new toilet is in, so we have to go pick that up too this week.  This is not a remodeling item, but our refrigetator has been limping along for the past year.  We've been hoping it was going to last a little onger, but no dice.  For the past 2 days, we've been hearing large clunking every once and a while coming from it and we decided it's time to get a new one before we find it doesn't chill/freeze any longer.  We went last night and bought a new one and it is to be delivered Sat. morn.

The grandkids are coming this Friday night to sleep over....YEAH !!!!

That's it for now.
Have a great week.

Snow, Snow and MORE Snow !

Hi all,
So...are we ready for spring yet ??? Have we had enough snow ??? Is everyone done with having to put a coat on to go anywhere??? If I'm asking the right questions then we are all on the same page.....YES,YES,YES !!! 
I went to work on Tuesday knowing that the storm was on it's way and was to hit here around 3PM.  I decided to work a 1/2 day (till 11AM) and then get home before everyone else got on the road at 3PM.  Well, I could have worked the whole day because the snow didn't really start coming down heavy until around 5PM here in Wales.  Then the wind picked up and we were off to the races....I took a vacation day on Wednesday and I'm so glad I did.  We woke up to a huge drift in front of our front door.  We couldn't open the door at all.  Here's a few pictures:

I shoveled a little trail on the deck first thing in the morning for Bailey to go potty.  There was a big drift right outside of the patio door and she couldn't get over it, so I had to make a trail for her.

John started snowblowing at 7AM and didn't get finished until around 10:30.  He even snowblowed the deck and a little area for Bailey to go potty...See pic's below:

Snowblowing off the deck below..From previous shovelings there was so much snow on it there wasn't anywhere else to put it, so John snowblowed most of it off the deck.  That snow was heavy!!!

We had neighbors helping neighbors in our cul de sac, it was really nice and everyone got their driveways done in record time!!!

 

Then the snow plow guys (Wolf Paving)  came with the big gun...a front loader and moved alot of the snow into big piles off of the road.

So that was our excitment for the week.

We are making progress on the remodeling how ever it's been mostly the behind the scenes stuff this week.  The electrician has been here putting in the exhaust fan, wiring up the electrical outlets for the lighting in the bathroom.  Then putting in can lights above the fireplace for accent lighting and for the fireplace fan.  He's also still working on adding another breaker box in the basement for the additional electrical circuts needed.

The plumber is done hooking all water and sewer up, but will have to come back once we get the new power vented hot water heater to run a pipe to exhaust to the outside of the house.

The drywaller was here today with Kurt to check out what needs to be drywalled next. There was a little problem with the fireplace that we ordered at American Fireplace.  They messed up our order and now we are looking at a different fireplace at Genesse Fireplace in Wales. So we have to get that ordered, not sure how long that will take to get here, but Kurt & crew are getting things done very quickly. 

That's the latest, I hope everyone made it through the blizzard ok and did not over do it with shoveling.

Have a nice week/weekend.



Remodel update

Hi All,
This week the guys put in the windows downstairs and we couldn't be happier.  They bring in so much more light and it makes the room seem so much bigger.  Here are a few pic's of the outside and inside views.

The only bad thing about this is that my bushes had to be cut down....Oh well more digging and planting in the spring!!!

The rough carpenters are done now and today the electrician, plumber & HVAC people are coming along with Kurt to get an update on what is needed from them.  The plumber has been here before to rough in the piping for the toilet and vanity and now today he is supposed connect it all to the water/sewer systems. 

John and I went yesterday afternoon to Halquist Stone in Sussex to pick out the stone facade for the fireplace.  Unbelievable on how many choices of stone there are !  It sure was hard to pick something out, but we finally got our choices down to 2. We'll keep it as a surprise until it's installed and then I will take some pictures and post it.  You would be more than welcome to come visit to see it in person too!!!

That's all for now,

Take care and have a great rest of the week.

The remodeling project has begun !

Hi all,
I had mentioned before in an earlier post that there was going to be some changes to the Winters household.  They have now begun and for a few months we are living in a very unorganized household.  We had to get EVERYTHING out of the lower level rec room, so most of it went out to the garage.  Yes, I had to give up my garage this winter, but it's better that paying $400 to rent a Pod.  The rest of the stuff has been distributed around the house temporarily until it's all said and done.  I want to say a big THANK YOU to Dawn, Jim & Andy for helping us get our TV and couch up from the lower level.  Those 2 things were so heavy and to get them up those darn stairs was a real struggle.  John and I really appreciate your help.  We owe you one big time.
We have decided to add a 1/2 bath to be a located down in our rec room.  Isn't this a little late to be doing this we asked ourselves?  After living here for 26 years, I guess it's better late than never.  It would have been great to have a additional bathroom when the kids were still living in the house.  It would have prevented the "are you done yet?" question.   In addition to the new bathroom, we are putting in a gas fireplace.  We picked out a very nice one that will be able to take the chill out of the air.  With the rec room being under the ground level, it cooler that the rest of the house.  We are also adding 2 more windows to the West side of the room.  It will bring in more light then so we don't have to constantly turn on a light in the middle of the afternoon.  In the dining room upstairs we are removing about a 4' x 4' size of wall so we have more walking/sitting room in that area.  By switching the water heater over to a power vented one that vents out the side of the house, that will eliminate the chimney stack that goes up through the dining room area that takes up alot of needed space.  We are very seriously thinking about removing the wood burning fireplace in our livingroom.  It cannot be switched over to gas and the company has since gone out of business. We haven't used it in years, and with it gone, we will have more furniture arrangement opportunity.    New carpeting will finalize the remodel. 
Kurt Raymond, owner of Crestwood Homes is doing the remodel and I can't tell you how very pleased we are so far as to how he has helped us figure out the best way to do all of this.  He knows this business very well and his crew has done a wonderful job so far.  Here are a few pictures of the demo and some of the framing in of the bathroom and the fireplace.
This is looking towards the basement and the stairs going up to the kitchen. The new bathroom is going to be on the left.

This one is looking to the north where the "old" computer room was.

Here is the frame for the fireplace.  There will be stone on the bottom and drywall on the top

Bailey is not very happy with all of the changes in her comfort zone right now but she's doing ok.  I stayed home with her on Wed. when they first came to start the demo so she could meet the crew and try to get used to the different noises.  There was alot of banging, sawing & pounding, but she took it like a trooper.  I went to work today and put her upstairs with a gate across the hallway so she could at least see who was coming into the house when the guys came over today.  According to the guys, she did very good, no barking or carrying on.
That's it so far, I will keep you updated on the progress.
Keep warm and GO PACKERS!!!!!



HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!

John and I want to wish everyone a healthy, safe and prosperous new year !